Originally Posted by Harlequin90

I had an awful experience at Marine Land. I was like .. somewhere between the ages of 8 and 10. And we went to the area where you feed the deer. Anyway..I was holding the food out in my hand for the deer to eat but the deer totally ignored it and came towards be and rubbed his dirty mouth all over my shirt. Lol.. it sounds funny when I say it but I was totally traumatized by it. My shirt was new too!

Did you have a picture of food on your shirt? XD

That would be traumatizing at 8 years old.

I went to Marine Land once... I remember it being pretty cool, but like it was said before, Marine Land is more about attractions, and Wonderland is more about rides, so they're two different entities.

I wouldn't really consider going to Marine Land again anytime soon though, I think it's really best for families with younger children.

I think I went when I was like 8-11 years old... Literally, I remember being there for like, 3 hours tops and then my parents said, "Okay, that's it, we've seen everything," and I was like, "Really? That's it? ... Lame."

I don't remember ANYTHING of it though. Just that it was disappointing. XD

Originally Posted by jesus

I hate killer whales. :|

Obviously they have to kill to survive, but when I was in Alaska last summer. They've been killing off the endangered seal population - for fun.

I wonder if there's an evolutionary reason behind it.

Originally Posted by jesus

I hate killer whales. :|

Obviously they have to kill to survive, but when I was in Alaska last summer. They've been killing off the endangered seal population - for fun.

The orca feeds on seals (they don't just kill them for fun)... they don't care (or know for that matter) that their prey might be endangered. That's just nature... it's not very nice sometimes.

Originally Posted by Taunton

The orca feeds on seals (they don't just kill them for fun)... they don't care (or know for that matter) that their prey might be endangered. That's just nature... it's not very nice sometimes.

Yes, like I mentioned, they obviously have to kill to feed and survive. Understandable.

But they've been killing off far more than they actually need to survive according to the park ranger. She told me that they'll often just kill seals and leave the bodies to rot without eating them.

EDIT: Sorry, that came out wrong. I meant to say:

You shouldn't take a single person's word for the 'gospel-truth.' You should use your own means of deduction, if something doesn't make sense then it doesn't make sense for a reason.

Oh, definitely. However, considering she's lived in the area for 40+ years as a ranger, I think she knows her stuff =p. I've heard similar things from other people as well.

The average pod size in vancouver is gigantic.

I dunno, I tend to be a skeptic about those kind of things since experience is so limited.

You happened upon someone who works as a ranger. Assume she's telling the truth, and has no other motives to gain from lying (a crucial step).

She's seen a buttload of Killer Whales... But how many hasn't she seen? Probably a lot more. I'm not saying she's wrong, I'm just a skeptic when it comes to scientists (or in this case a park ranger) proclaiming something specialized in their field.

It's just I'm familiar with a few cases where even every single authority was determined that something was true, and then to their surprise, they were contradicted years later...The Monty Hall Problem, the Godel Incompleteness theorems, Russell's Paradox and the destruction of Mathematics, and heck, every scientist on earth thought the Earth was flat at one point. Even the concept of infinity was rejected by everyone except Cantor until many years later.

Very smart woman I'm sure, skilled in her field, yes...but her opinion is no more valid than yours or mine... and that's a trap people fall into.

EDIT: To clarify: She can most certainly relay her experiences to you...but to relate this behaviour to the low seal population is guess work. Another possible reason I (as a lay person) can suggest, the original one being that it is being 'exaggerated' is that this behaviour has always existed...and when seal populations are high, Killer Whales are our best friends, ensuring the population doesn't explode. But now that the coin's flipped, it's suddenly problematic...when all the while, an external factor, such as environmental changes, caused the population to drop in the first place.

Wow...What you said is true, but intense man :|

I went to Marineland once, and i didnt like the outdoor part, only the indoor part.. it smelled like fish, that's ALL i remember

it seems like this summer everyone I work with went to Marineland.
I've never been - I feel like it's a rite of passage and I can't become an adult without going.

fun fact: when I was like 3, my family and I went to the Falls for the day. My brother and I had just seen the commercial for Marineland with the giant Walrus King. My mom thought it would be fun to tell us that if we could find the Walrus King then we could go to Marineland.

we were in the middle of a giant field.

cruel.

Originally Posted by jmbauman

fun fact: when I was like 3, my family and I went to the Falls for the day. My brother and I had just seen the commercial for Marineland with the giant Walrus King. My mom thought it would be fun to tell us that if we could find the Walrus King then we could go to Marineland.

we were in the middle of a giant field.

cruel.

Your mom has the same kind of cruelty as my dad. Story:

I had wanted a dog since I could say the word. I LOVED them (and still do). When I was five, we were moving from a small house with a teeny tiny yard to a larger house with a rather large yard. My dad said when we moved we could get a dog.

A year later my mom asked him about getting a dog. His response: "I lied".

It actually made sense for us not to have a dog because we would spend nearly every weekend in the summer as well as a couple of weeks and a few weeks in the winter away.

But damn, I want a dog (still)!

dog related: I asked my dad if we could get a dog because I would be home for the summer. he was in for it. my mom said no.

instead, she bought me a tomato plant instead, and I got to plant a vegetable garden.

NB: tomato plants do not play fetch